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Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: A Psychological Approach to Happiness. On Defining Happiness: The Balance of Pleasure Over Pain. Pleasure as an Internal Judgment. The Context for Judgment. Part II: Contextual Theory and Research. Life as an Even Balance Between Pleasure and Pain. Experimental Research on Contextual Effects. The Range-Frequency Compromise in Judgment. The Contextual Theory of Happiness. Part III: Applying the Theory. The Happiness Game: Simplest Version. Optimistic Versions of the Happiness Game. Real-World Strategies for Happiness. The Imagination as the Theater for Happiness. Social Planning: Utopia Destroyed. Thoreau: A Message for the Very Strong.
A 1996 study studied this question.